Cakes of Light Recipe 1

Courtesy Sr. Courtney Landes

This recipe is great for making a single batch of cakes of light for mass. This dough very crumbly, so it is not suitable for freezing raw. However, cooked cakes freeze beautifully for several months.

Kamut flour

All-purpose flour

2 T extra virgin olive oil (choose a very mild-flavored brand)

2 T honey

3-4 drops Abramelin oil (make sure it’s edible, not all kinds are)

1 c tawny port (I use Clocktower brand)

Simmer the wine uncovered in a small sauce pan until reduced to 1-2 tablespoons with a syrupy consistency. This will take about 40 minutes or so. Meanwhile, blend your flours. You want a mixture that is equal parts Kamut and all-purpose flours. Make at least 1 cup of the combination.

Stir this together with honey, olive oil, and Abramelin oil until well blended. The tablespoons of honey will come off the easier if you alternate measuring olive oil between them.

Add 1/2 cup flour to the liquid and stir until it is all absorbed. Keep adding flour gradually and stirring until the mixture is hard to stir. Roll the dough ball in flour and knead by hand, mixing in the flour. Repeat the process until the dough won’t take any more flour. Use your flour mixture to flour your rolling pin and rolling surface. Roll the dough to 1/8” thick and cut into 1/2-3/4” diameter circles with a cookie cutter or small bottle lid. Cut a cake for the priest that is about 1 1/4” in diameter and score it with a cross design so it will break easily. Cook the cakes at 300 degrees for about 6 minutes. I do them in 3-4 batches in the toaster oven so that the kitchen doesn’t get heated up just for 1 batch of cakes. Allow to cool and then take to mass or freeze.

Cakes of Light Recipe 2

Courtesy Sr. Shellay Maughan

1/2 cup Kamut flour and 1/4 cup wheat flour (or 3/4 c flour of any kind)

3 Tbls Extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbls Honey

2-3 Drops Abramelin oil

1 Tbls Leavings of red wine (wine goo)*

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all the ingredients. The dough should stick together, but not stick to your hands or the spoon. Add more flour if it’s too sticky.

Four a large cutting board. Take out a small ball of dough, pressing it flat with the palm of your hand. Roll to 1/8" thick with a floured rolling pin.

Using a small round cookie cutter (or lipstick lid) cut cakes for your congregation. You will probably want to use a larger cookie cutter or bottle lid to cut the priest cake. I score a cross on the priest cake to make it easier to break.

Bake cookies for 4 - 7 minutes. Watch them! They burn easily. The cakes won’t look done when you take them out - just let them cool for a while. Extra dough and extra cookies can be frozen and used later.

* Leavings of red wine refers to the yeast left over from making red wine; this is difficult to come by unless you make wine yourself. Often, a good bottle of port will have residue on the bottom that can be thought of as ‘leavings’. More commonly wine goo is made by simmering a cup or so of red wine on the stove until a thick syrup is created. Use low heat – the wine should steam but not boil.

Notes on the ingredients used in Cakes of Light

From the US Grand Lodge OTO EGC Manual:

"For all official celebration of the Gnostic Mass, except for those private celebrations of the Gnostic Mass at which all participants have specifically requested otherwise, the Cakes of Light provided by the celebrants to the congregation shall be made with the following ingredients and with no other ingredients:

i.     Meal (any ground edible grain)

  1. Honey
  2. Leavings of red wine
  3. Oil of Abramelin (a blend of cinnamon, myrrh, galangal and olive oils)
  4. Olive oil
  5. Optionally one of the following ingredients may be added:

    • Livestock blood obtained legally from a butcher shop or farm

    • Ash from cakes of light made according to any reasonable interpretation of CCXX III:23 and which have been burned in accordance with CCXX III:25.